Australia’s most famous cetacean, Migaloo the white whale, was last spotted five years ago, but a fresh sighting off Queensland has fans hopeful there’s a new white wonder residing in east coast waters.
Couple John Laws and Emily Erskine captured drone vision of a whale heading north off Waddy Point on K’gari yesterday afternoon.
It was making its way up the humpback highway, the whale migration route, while being stalked by a shark.
“We got out there and realised it was an awfully pale-looking whale,” Laws said.
The whale was white and similar in colour to Migaloo — the world’s most recognisable humpback.
Migaloo resides off Australia’s east coast but was last seen off the coast of Port Macquarie in NSW in June 2020.
SeaWorld Cruises marine expert Pedro Wilson said his “heart started pumping” when he saw the whale looked “almost like the white whale, Migaloo”.
He said he got “super excited” thinking it could be the first official sighting in years.
“We need to know if it’s a brother from another mother, and if so, where is he hiding Migaloo?” Laws said.
“While it is very light in colour, there is a little bit of grey, very light grey on the top of its body and particularly on the tail fluke,” Wilson said.
“But it’s still extremely rare to have that lack of pigmentation.”
Scientists take tissue samples to identify genetic mutations in whales.
There are only a handful with the white colouring worldwide.
This year’s migration has just begun, sparking hope for a fresh Migaloo sighting.
“The whales we see on the east coast of the island here, they’ll be making their way into Hervey Bay,” Laws said.
“We’ll be making an effort to go over the other side and try and find him.”
